On Saturday we ran our third Slot it Group C championship race of the season. It's been a while since we had a points series race and people where anxious to race this class again. The track was new, a few guys had new cars, several people had new things to try, a lot of practice and testing was done during last week, generally, a greatly anticipated event.16 racers came up for this one. A few guys were missing, since the match for the national football cup was held in the same day, but still we had 4 full heats to race. A colorful grid on the track:

Cars where arranged in the heats, according to the points standings and 5min runs where ran alternatively.

Heat4:left to right, George Dilberakis, Vasilis Filipoglou, Maria and Alexis.

Among the racers, some 'old dogs' where allowed to use only the inline motor mounts, all the others could choose either inline or the sidewinder (which has proved faster so far). The 'old dogs' for this race where Petros, Timos, Christine, Dimitris and Alexis. The race procedure is simple. Heats run their 5min runs alternatively, starting with heat1 and changing lanes after each round, running four rounds overall since we have a 4 lane track. This way we have a classification announcement after each round, where everyone has raced 5, 10, 15 and finally 20 mins.Round 1 started with a good pace, several guys (and girls) showed that they had the potential to do battle for top spot. Giaccomo and Petros scored a 35lap run, George Dammato, Dimitris, Timos and Maria scored 34 laps, Christine a little behind at the start with 32, Vassilis APR has high hopes with 31 and Sotiris in his first race scores a 30lap run! Alexis stays in touch with a 29, Freddie and George Dilberakis both score 27, Vassilis Fillipoglou and Thanos score 24, Dionissis 21 and Andreas 18laps.In round 2 things are heating up a bit more. Dimitris scores a 35 too and climbs up, Giacomo, Timos, Christine and George Damato score 34laps, Petros only 33, Maria drops a bit with 32laps, but Sotiris scores also a 32 and moves up a place. Vasilis is lower at 30, George Dilb. and Alexis score 29, Freddie and Thanos run 27 laps, Dionisis improves at 24, Vasilis F. drops at 23 and Andreas scores 20. Things are getting tighter!!!In Run3, not much of a change. Giacomo, Timos, George Dammato and Christine all did 34lap runs, Dimitris, Petros and Maria stay at 33laps. Vasilis, Freddie, George Dilberakis and Alexis, all score 30 laps, Sotiris drops a bit with 29. Thanos gets 24, Vasilis F. and Andreas score 23 and Dionisis gets 22laps.So far, Giacomo is on top with 103laps, Dimitris, George Dammato and Timos all have 102, Petros has 101, Christine has 100 and Maria has 99laps!!! Really close!In run4 Petros and Timos run 35laps, Giacomo and George Dammato run 34laps, Christine and Maria run 33laps and Dimitris scores only 32laps in the most difficult lane of the track (the outer). Vassilis APR and Sotiris continue their battle and both score 31laps. Alexis scores 29, Freddie runs 28, George Dilb. gets 27, Vassilis F. manages 26, Thanos and Dionisis score 24 and Andreas finishes with 23laps.

So, after 20mins of really close racing, overall results are:

ANDROVICH GIACCOMO : 137laps - best lap: 8.406s

KOULOURIDIS TIMOS : 137laps - best lap: 8.433s

DAMATO GEORGE : 136laps - best lap: 8.494s

KOULOURIDIS PETROS : 136laps - best lap: 8.540s

DIMAS DIMITRIS : 134laps - best lap: 8.463s

LOUKISSA CHRISTINA : 133laps - best lap: 8.616s

ATHOUSAKI MARIA : 132laps - best lap: 8.748s

APR VASSILIOS : 122laps - best lap: 8.928s

SOFRONIS SOTIRIS : 122laps - best lap: 8.776s

GAITANIS ALEXIS : 117laps - best lap: 9.487s

DILMPERAKIS GEORGE : 113laps - best lap: 9.512s

VAGGER FREDDY : 112laps - best lap: 9.657s

NISKOPOYLOS THANOS : 99laps - best lap: 9.747s

FILIPOGLOU VASILIS : 96laps - best lap: 10.722s

PANAGIOTOPOULOS DIONISIS : 91laps - best lap: 10.630s

BIROL ANDREAS : 84laps - best lap: 10.067s

(Ties in laps where decided taking into account the time it takes to complete the last lap of each run, after the 5minutes have passed)

Aftermath:It seems that, it is too hard to beat a sidewinder car with an inline. Giaccomo was flawless, he drove his s/w Mazda to the first place, without mistakes. George Dammato, was also very fast, he was right in the heat of the battle for the win, all the time. On the other hand, the winner of the first two rounds Dimitris, had to use the inline configuration this time, a restriction that cost him several places on the standings. This mixture produces a really close points standings, as Dimitris now gets much less points and Giaccomo seems strong. The 'old dogs' have to try really hard to come up with good results against the guys who may use the S/W setup.

Very cool Timos and another great finish for you. I imagine it makes things more fun for the old guys to be handicapped against the rooks. lol You all seem to have a great thing going and I can't wait to get my speedway up and running. Your blogs have been a great source of inspiration for me so thanks for all the time and effort of documenting each race! So what's the next race, group 5?

Very cool Timos and another great finish for you. I imagine it makes things more fun for the old guys to be handicapped against the rooks. lol You all seem to have a great thing going and I can't wait to get my speedway up and running. Your blogs have been a great source of inspiration for me so thanks for all the time and effort of documenting each race! So what's the next race, group 5?

Jeff

Jeff, no no Group 5 yet. Vintage LM class, sports and prototypes from 60s and early 70s. Well, this one was really hard. I really tried very hard, I tried so much to focus and make no mistakes and still drive fast, that I got a headache later on... But I really enjoyed it, it is obvious that now we have several drivers that are really tough to beat. Giacomo and Dimitris are excellent drivers and George Dammato was a very pleasant surprise. Given the time he's into the hobby and the amount of practice that he had last week, his drive was probably the best of the day!!